Matthew Bourne's The Car Man comes to the Wycombe Swan

Matthew Bourne's The Car Man comes to the Wycombe Swan next week

Internationally acclaimed musical, The Car Man, is set to thrill audiences at the Wycombe Swan next week after a successful revival.

Matthew Bourne’s award-winning dance thriller, which is loosely based on Bizet’s popular opera, has been staged for the first time in eight years with a brand new tour.

Fans of the original opera will notice the familiar 19th Century Spanish cigarette factory has become a greasy garage-diner in 1960’s America where the dreams and passions of a small-town are shattered by the arrival of a handsome stranger.

Fuelled by heat and desire, the inhabitants are into an unstoppable spiral of greed, lust, betrayal and revenge.

Chris Trenfield is set to share the main role of the Car Man himself, Luca, with Jonathan Olliver.

“Luca is a mysterious character. He just comes into town, where everyone knows everyone, out of nowhere. It’s really interesting to follow his journey as a character. He’s very charismatic.”

The Car Man follows the phenomenal world-wide success of the likes of Swan Lake, where Chris again shared the role of The Swan with Jonathan.

“When I did Swan Lake, that was daunting but the more shows I have done, the less daunting it has become.

“The rest of the cast are brilliant. We are like one big family because I've been working with most of them for about six years now. We all know each other inside out. It’s a really fun environment to work in.”

Chris has worked with Matthew Bourne multiple times since he graduated from Performing Arts college in 2008.

“Matthew Bourne is great to work with. He’s very precise and wants he wants certain things done at certain times. He has some great ideas and he’s a very musical person so everything is always perfect. He’s very placid and calm.

“The kind of show that Matthew Bourne does is all about storytelling. The story is very powerful and there’s also some incredibly dancing, so it was a no-brainer for me to want to be a part of it.

“The Car Man a really incredible show actually. I saw it in 2007; it was the first Matthew Bourne show I had seen and I just thought it was amazing. It will blow you away.”

The original Car Man, Alan Vincent will be returning to the company to play Lana’s violent husband, Dino.

Chris said: “Alan Vincent is wonderful to work with. When people think of The Car Man, they instantly think of him so it’s an honour to be able to work with him.

“He’s an incredible actor and his movement is so unique.

“He’s so inspiring and he brings a great energy to the show. You would think he might be quite intimidating because he has done this for so long, but he’s very approachable and he likes to share his knowledge with everyone.”

The show comes to the Wycombe Swan on Tuesday and Chris admits he can’t wait to come back to the town again.

“I'm really looking forward to coming back to the Wycombe Swan. It has got lots of good memories for me because I performed here with Swan Lake. I'm looking forward to being able to spend some time in the town.”

And Chris, who admits the highlight of his career so far is performing Swan Lake in New York, told of his favourite part of The Car Man.

“I love dancing to Habanera, in the scene where Luca arrives at the diner. It’s such a well-known tune and it’s really fun. I love the garage scene at the beginning of the show as well. The whole show is very different to anything else you could see at the theatre.

“It’s a must-see show. You will never see anything like this again on stage. It’s such an enchanting piece of theatre.

It’s an honour to be a part of a show like this.”

The Car Man is showing at the Wycombe Swan between Tuesday 12 May and Saturday 16 May. Tickets range from £25 to £40, available online at www.wycombeswan.co.uk or by calling the ticket office on 01494 512 000.

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